The cold weather of Florida

So, as tomorrow is the beginning of December, it's the time of year where I am thankful for living in Florida! It took me a little while to get used to no snow and not having to bundle up heading out Christmas shopping! I certainly am not upset that I am able to head to the pool on New Year's Eve!

I'm super excited that my parents are coming down for Christmas. They haven't been able to spend any time with us since moving to Florida in 2005. I guess since my sister's living in England and my brother is deployed in Afghanistan, they were in a position where they couldn't turn us down! :-)

Are you ready for the holidays? I have the trip up, the mantel decorated and hope to get the outside of the house decorated soon. I've been waiting to get my light up pink flamingoes with their Santa hats out there!!

Good News!

So, I just got a call from the school board office and was told that everything is back in order and I can get back to work. Of course, she said that they had put me back on the list last week...why didn't anyone let me know?? I guess it's a good thing that I emailed a guy I had talked to previously in the HR department! I've left a voicemail for the lady who coordinates the subs and have also emailed the principal. I'm hoping that I'll see them all again soon!

I've decided to work on organizing my office. I have TOO much crap!! From empty photo albums (that I seem to keep buying) to stationary...I'm bound and determined to get that room in shape! I like to go in there, but it's a bit overwhelming. I bought one small bookcase to put some fabric bins in and then another one that will go beside my two tall shelves. Of course, I bought inexpensive ones from Target, but I still ended up spending $100!!! That place is a black hole of shopping! I only picked up a couple of things I didn't intend on buying (a giraffe print bra-like I need another bra and some cool duct tape-that I already have a roll of (unopened), but it was marked down!).

Tonight is the WVU v. Marshall game....Let's Go....Mountaineers!

And the school year starts.....

but unfortunately for me, I've only worked a little over one day. I'm so frustrated at this point. Last week I got a call from the lady who schedules all the substitute teachers at the school where I work and she was asking if I had received my "sub card" for this year. I had realized the day before (while teaching) that I hadn't received it yet. I didn't think much of it and had planned to go to the school board office within the next couple of days. Well, she continues to let me know that since I had returned a form the county sent out this summer (I haven't seen it), they had deleted my whole substitute file and I would have to start ALL over again!? So, I take my Professional Teaching Certificate along with all of my substitute paperwork from the past school year and really was hoping it would be an easy fix. Well, I WAS WRONG!! They told me that I would have to go through the training (ridiculous) and then have my fingerprinting and background check again. Also, they haven't scheduled the next substitute training class and it could be between 4 and 6 weeks. Of course DJ's frustrated, but I am SO FRUSTRATED! I love the kids and I love everyone I work with at the school. I immediately emailed the principal in hopes that he may be able to contact someone and get something worked out for me. Well, as of today, I haven't heard back from him (but I'm getting ready to email him and check up). I may go back into the school board office either today or Monday and see if there's anything new. I think I also have the contact info for a man who works in the HR department, so I may drop him a note too. I guess it would hurt, right?

So, I'll keep you posted on this whole process and hopefully I'll be back in the classroom sooner than later!

Oh, by the way....we have our next trip coming up. We're heading to Baton Rouge for the WVU game, New Orleans for the Saints game and then heading out to Vegas for DJ's work conference!!

Heat, Humidity & Home!

After 5 weeks in England, Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Italy, I made it home and have started recovering! I am going to try and sit down and write my experiences and thoughts about each city that I visited and do them in separate postings. I learned a lot of lessons, got lots of ideas of what I want to do in the future and made tons of memories. It was nice visiting with Melanie, Liam and Mike in England. DJ met up with me in Amsterdam and then we met up with 4 friends (2 couples) in Paris.

Well, I know this is a bit brief, but I have bags to unpack, laundry to work on and other tasks that are looking me in the face. Oh, and I'm getting the carpet cleaned on Monday, so I have to put everything on the living room floor away and move living and bedroom furniture for that! (not fun!) I think I'm going to meet up with Mom & Dad next weekend to get Rocco & Lola back. We've missed them SO much, but know that they were in great hands, were spoiled like crazy and are looking forward to getting back to Florida.

Until next time....look for the "post about England" in the next couple of days!

Onward I go.....

So, I finally broke down and made all my travel arrangements for the next couple of stops of my trip. I'm going to head to London on Saturday and stay there until Tuesday. After London, I'll be heading to Brussels. I'll admit, I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do in Brussels, but I'll be there just one full day, so I'm sure I can find something to do! On the 22nd of July I'll be heading to Amsterdam where I'll meet up with DJ on the 23rd. From there we'll be heading out on the rest of our trip.

Today it was super windy here in Littleport. Mike bought Liam a kite at lunch, so we headed to the soccer fields to fly it. The winds were so strong that our GI Joe kite only lasted about 15 minutes before we started having some technical breakdowns. The poles holding the kite together started poking through the kite and it started having a really rough time flying! We got some video and I can't wait to upload them to my youtube account. Liam was so funny and laughed SO much!!

Well, Liam is trying to find his mom in a game of "Hide-n-seek", so I need to get going...

Week One

Well, I've been in the UK for almost a week now and it's been fun! It's nice that I've been before and am used to the area, how things go and know what to expect. Also, since I've been before, there are some sights that I don't have to worry about getting to.

We've visited Sandringham Estate, where the Royal Family stays from December to February. Of course, it was gorgeous! They showed us where the Queen sits and watches tv...we couldn't help but wonder what she watches....CSI? Gossip Girl? Grey's Anatomy? Who knows!

This past weekend we traveled to the Windsor area and took Liam to Legoland on Saturday and then went to Windsor Castle on Sunday. There aren't many areas inside the castle that are open to the public except the State apartments. The line to go through this area was so long and since I had bought a book about the castle, we decided to skip the inside. Perhaps I'll check this out another time when there aren't so many people there. We had gorgeous weather (for a FL girl), but it was quite warm for the Brits. I enjoyed our stay in the Holiday Inn Saturday night. (They had 1. air conditioning and 2. AWESOME WATER PRESSURE!). You all know I love my sister and I love visiting her, but the "rain shower" showerhead with no pressure drives me nuts!! I know I'm spoiled to a point, but wow!

This week is Liam's last week of school. He goes to school 2 days for 1/2 the day and then all day on Friday. We've managed to run out on short excursions between taking Mike to work, Liam to school, picking Liam up from school and picking Mike up from work. Mel definitely spends more time burning up the country roads of England than doing anything for herself!!!

I still have 10 days before I meet up with DJ. We're still trying to decide our exact itinerary, as we have tweaked it on more than one occasion, which is fine with me. I do believe we have our hotels booked for Amsterdam, Bordeaux and Rome. That leaves us with hotels in Paris and Venice to book. Also, I have tours picked out in the cities we'll be visiting, so I'm waiting to book those one we know for sure when we'll be where.

Until next time.....

Time to Leave!!

After planning and looking forward to this vacation, it's finally here! I'll be leaving tomorrow (7/5) at 1p and head to London. I have a connection in Atlanta for a couple of hours before hopping the pond. I've impressed myself with my suitcase...it's weighing in at 55lbs (DJ guessed it would be 54lbs). Seeing that I was allowed 2 bags at 70lbs max each, I'm quite happy with myself. I guess I learned my lesson last time trying to make room for a suitcase and other bags on the trains, etc. I'm carrying on one duffel bag (Vera Bradley, of course) and my backpack.

I will try to keep this blog fairly updated (I hope someone starts reading it!) as long as I have an internet connection. I'll probably post the link to my facebook...maybe some of my "friends" will check it out. :-)

Godspeed.....